Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
April 27, 2009
1. Top Items–
Peripheral canal no drought lifeline, Contra Costa water district finds
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County is denied QSA suit request
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Peripheral canal no drought lifeline, Contra Costa water district finds
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By Mike Taugher
A $10 billion plan to build a canal around the Delta would not deliver significantly more water to cities and farms if it were in place this year, new data shows.
Water agencies and politicians from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on down have repeatedly stressed that water shortages this year from the Bay Area to San Diego prove the need for such a canal. It would divert water around the Delta for delivery to farms and cities.
But numbers developed by a state-run planning group seeking to build the canal show it would not deliver more water in dry years, the Contra Costa Water District stated this week.
"Consequently, all the same issues would have arisen about deliveries and operations," Greg Gartrell, district assistant general manager, wrote this week to leaders in the planning effort, called the Bay Delta Conservation Plan.
A spokeswoman for the conservation plan said she had not seen the memo and that participants were still working through the report containing the data.
"I imagine we'll need to address these issues," said Karla Nemeth.
In addition to calling for a canal, many politicians and water officials blame the shortages on new protections for Delta smelt.
But, according to water users' estimates, new rules to protect the threatened fish cost 300,000 acre-feet of water this year and it does not appear that number will rise significantly before the rules phase out for the year on June 30.
While that is enough water for more than 2 million people, it amounts 5 percent of the 6 million acre-feet a year delivered from the Delta between 2000 and 2007.
More significant than the new Delta smelt rules and the method of getting water through the Delta — both of which could have a bigger effect in wetter periods — is the fact that reservoirs are drawn down.
"The canal doesn't make water. It can only move water that's there," Gartrell said.
A computer model that estimates the amount of water the canal could deliver showed that, on average, it could send more Delta water south and in wet years the increase is significant.
But in dry years the increase is small to nonexistent.
That is because even if a canal were built, water managers still must ensure that enough water remains in the
The water plan would cost billions of dollars, with the canal portion coming in at $8.4 billion or more.
The numbers show the plan might not be cost-effective, and, if built, it could threaten further environmental degradation in the Delta, said Gary Bobker, program manager of The Bay Institute, an environmental group, and a member of the conservation plan's steering committee.
"If you build a very expensive facility and don't improve water supply much, does that create more incentive for water agencies to weaken existing environmental and water quality standards?" he asked.
Although it is possible to store more water in wet years to weather droughts, it is unclear whether reservoirs south of the Delta have enough capacity to store more water than they had in storage before this three-year dry spell began.
The Bay Delta Conservation Plan, if approved, would allow the canal's construction as part of an overall strategy to conserve endangered species.
It would appear to be the most complex plan of its kind ever done under endangered species laws and, with a goal of finishing it next year, would also appear to be one of the fastest ever prepared.#
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_12221166?nclick_check=1
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County is denied QSA suit request
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By Megan Bakker
“These motions appear to be attempts by the county to try their CEQA claims in advance of the Phase 1B and Phase 1C trial dates specifically set for these matters,” the judge’s decision reads.
“The court therefore denies these three motions without prejudice on the ground that they are premature,” it continues.
Neither the Imperial Irrigation District nor the county’s attorney could be reached by press time.
The county filed lawsuits against the QSA shortly after it was signed in 2003, questioning the thoroughness of the environmental review process and alleging that part of the agreement violated the California Environmental Quality Act.
The QSA requires that the Imperial Irrigation District transfer set amounts of water per year to other
The county and its Air Pollution Control District are specifically concerned with air quality issues that might arise around the Salton Sea as a result of the water transfer, and want more mitigation funds from Metropolitan and
The county requested at the beginning of January to pull out its environmental objections to the QSA and have those claims heard first and independently of the other issues in the lawsuit. The filing said the judge presiding over the case refused to hear the environmental issues, repeatedly turning them away after they were introduced five years ago.
But part of the delay in getting the environmental issues heard was due to the county itself, which stopped the case entirely for two and a half years while it appealed one of the judge’s early decisions.
IID legal counsel has said in the past that pulling the environmental claims out was problematic because the environmental and other issues were intertwined and it would be impossible to pull them apart.
The judge agreed, issuing a motion that denied the county’s request. Instead the environmental issues will be heard by January.#
http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2009/04/26/local_news/news05.txt
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